As you may know the members of the Watcher’s Council each nominate one of his or her own posts and one non-Council post for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week’s Council nominations is here. The Council plans to continue the present rotation scheme until the arrangements subsequent to the Watcher’s retirement are finalized. Stay tuned! This outing the Council’s weekly submissions are being hosted by The Razor.
Soccer Dad, “Hello martyr, hello fatah”
Soccer Dad muses on a picture of Palestinian girls at summer camp, learning to use weapons.
The Glittering Eye, “Strategic Objectives in Afghanistan”
I try to relate means to ends in Sen. Barack Obama’s Afghanistan policy and come a cropper.
Bookworm Worm, “Marin County’s Hidden Conservatives”
Bookworm posts on the secret cabal of Republicans in Marin County.
Cheat Seeking Missiles, “Time to Fire Bob Herbert”
I keep trying to tell people that when one’s consciousness has been raised there is quite literally nothing that isn’t about whatever it is your consciousness has been raised about. In his submission this week Laer is amazed at Bob Herbert’s radicalism.
Done With Mirrors, “Heroes”
Callimachus contrasts recently deceased Alexander Solzhenitsyn with attention seekers Madonna and Michael Moore.
Rhymes with Right, “What is a Windfall Profit?”
Greg takes on Sen. Barack Obama’s support for windfall profits taxes on the oil companies. I think I can give a good example of a “windfall profit”: the additional revenue made by copyright holders after the passage of the 1999 copyright extension act.
The Razor, “Red Man in a Blue Family”
Scott takes his family’s political temperature.
Colossus of Rhodey, “Obama Wants Slavery Reparations”
Hube is convinced that Sen. Obama favors paying reparations to African Americans for slavery and puts in his two cents. As I believe I’ve written before I think that, if you’re making an historical argument it should actually be based on history. To me that means that those receiving reparations should be the descendants of slaves rather than descendants of non-slaves and those who pay the bulk of the reparations should be those who benefited most and did least. I note in passing that at least one of my great-great-grandfathers was an abolitionist and fought for the Union. What else should he have done?
Wolf Howling, “Why Exploit Our Domestic Resources”
GW continues making the case for more domestic production of oil.
Joshuapundit, “Winning in Afghanistan ”
Freedom Fighter’s submission this week is a good post presenting his views on achieving victory in Afghanistan. I agree with some of what he has to say and disagree with other things. Here’s an example of something I disagree with, on Afghanistan’s strategic importance: “Afghanistan sits perched at the gateway to the so-called `stans, the oil and gas rich regions of Central Asia that were once part of the Soviet Union…and a nexus of no less than three countries with imperial ambitions, Iran, Russia and Pakistan.” I think that Afghanistan has no strategic importance as long as we keep Al Qaeda from setting up shop there again. If you want to know what the real “gateway to the ‘stans is”, it’s China’s Sinjiang province. You know, the one where a couple of Uighur separatists blew themselves and a bunch of Chinese police officers up last week while defending their religion. At least that’s what their suicide notes said. An example of something I agree with is his idea of our buying up the poppy crop. We could probably get help from the Europeans on this. Natural opiates are better (and cheaper) than the artificial ones. The opposition to the idea will come from drug companies.
Well, I’ve decided which posts I’ll vote for this week. Which posts would get your votes?
Love Bookworm’s piece.